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On December 1, 2020, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia dismissed a breach of contract case that Ron D. Beal, P.A. brought against Hartford Fire Insurance Company (Civil Action File No. 1:20-CV-1447-MHC). Beal had represented a subcontractor who made a claim on a Hartford payment bond related to a Kansas project back in 2011.  Levy Craig represented Hartford and reached a settlement on the bond claim.  The general contractor, subcontractor, and Hartford agreed to go to court, though, on the subcontractor’s attorneys’ fees, which were over a half-million dollars.  After a three-day evidentiary hearing and post-hearing briefing, the Kansas court agreed with Levy Craig that Hartford was not liable for the subcontractor’s attorneys’ fees.  The subcontractor appealed, and Levy Craig convinced the Kansas Court of Appeals to affirm the judgement.  Beal subsequently received the attorneys’ fees claim through the subcontractor’s bankruptcy and sued Hartford again, this time in Federal Court in Georgia, alleging that Hartford breached the settlement agreement by disputing the subcontractor’s right to collect attorneys’ fees from Hartford.  Hartford came back to Levy Craig.  Litigation Chair Shane Mecham immediately filed a motion to dismiss based on the statute of limitations, res judicata, collateral estoppel, and the failure to state a claim.  Beal responded by filing its own summary judgement motion.  Shareholder James Breckenridge joined Mecham in the November 30, 2020 oral arguments on the dispositive motions.  The next day, the court granted Levy Craig’s motion to dismiss based on both the statute of limitations and collateral estoppel. “This case was a blatant example of forum shopping,” Mecham said.  “We were glad that we could get it dismissed for our client via an early dispositive motion.  It really means a lot that Hartford kept turning to us to handle this issue.”